Beyond the scoreboard: Celtics bigs passing the ball

http://www.csnne.com/boston-celtics/beyond-scoreboard-celtics-bigs-passing-ball?p=ya5nbcs&ocid=yahoo



Beyond the scoreboard: Celtics bigs passing the ball


December 1, 2015, 9:30 pm











MEXICO CITY – The Boston Celtics’ big men can score. They’ve shown the ability to rebound and defend as well.

But maybe their greatest gift as a collective unit is their ability to pass the ball.

When it comes to measuring a player’s willingness to pass the ball, merely examining their assists numbers won’t suffice.

Assists only measure the final dish or lob to finish off a play, a play that often involves multiple passes made in advance that ultimately led to a score.

When the Celtics’ knocked off the Miami Heat, Avery Bradley talked about how Boston didn’t settle as much for good shots, but continued to probe the defense for great ones.

Doing so successfully involves the play of the team’s big men.

Fortunately for the Celtics, they have some of the better ones in the NBA when it comes to passing the ball.

Against the Heat, two of the Celtics’ top three passers were 6-foot-9 big men Amir Johnson and Jared Sullinger.

Isaiah Thomas led the team with 59 made passes, followed by Johnson (47) and Sullinger (44).

In Boston’s 110-91 loss at Orlando the previous night, Thomas led the way in passes with 65 followed by a pair of Celtics big men, Sullinger (43) and David Lee (40).

Throughout the season, the role of Boston’s big men as passers as well as defenders and rebounders has been vital to the team’s chances at winning.

But balancing the need for good ball movement with being aggressive offensively is indeed a slippery slope for Boston, a team that lacks that one, consistent go-to scorer.

For them, making sure the ball is constantly on the move and not sticking to one side of the floor or in one player’s hands for too long, is an essential component of who they are as a team offensively.

Still, there are times when some of the Celtics players get into a game of “hero’s ball” where an individual player or two tries to side-step the ball movement and shoot early in the shot clock when he has a good look versus being a bit more patient and probe the defense to get a great one.

And that too can be tricky at times to navigate, especially for a player like Kelly Olynyk who is encouraged to shoot more but has shown a preference to get others involved.

Here we take a look at Boston’s big man rotation and how each has fared when it came to passing the ball in the Celtics’ last five games. Those who were among the top three for that particular game, their ranking is identified in parentheses.


............................................At Miami.....At Orlando.....WASHINGTON.....PHILLY.....At Atlanta

Amir Johnson..........................47 (2).........28................34....................30...........33

Jared Sullinger........................44 (3).........43 (2)...........49 (2)...............46 (3)......34

Kelly Olynyk...........................18..............21................28.....................22...........25

Jonas Jerebko.........................13..............21................28.....................11...........17

David Lee...............................24..............40 (3)...........29......................8...........46 (3)




bob
MY NOTE:  A good premise for an article, but his analysis is flawed because it doesn't show production, in this case 'passes', PER MINUTE.  So, the chart below are those numbers adjusted to reflect what they are doing for minutes played for each of those games, and not just totals.  Players who play 2x as many minutes should be making more passes.  If they are making just 1 or 2 more passes total but are playing, say, 2x the minutes then they are worse passers not better ones.  The numbers in parentheses are their minutes for that game, rounded to half minutes.

PASSES PER MINUTE PLAYED

............................................At Miami.....At Orlando.....WASHINGTON.....PHILLY...........At Atlanta

Amir Johnson----------------------1.42 (33)---1.47 (19)------1.84 (18.5)-------1.20 (25)-------1.50 (22)

Jared Sullinger--------------------1.29 (34)----1.59 (27)------2.04 (24)---------1.42 (32.5)----1.58 (21.5)

Kelly Olynyk-----------------------1.89 (9.5)---1.24 (17)------1.33 (21)---------1.52 (14.5)----1.56 (16)

Jonas Jerebko---------------------1.37 (9.5)---1.20 (17.5)---1.14 (24.5)-------1.38 (eight)----1.13 (15)

David Lee--------------------------1.71 (14)-----1.86 (21.5)---1.71 (17)---------1.78 (4.5)-----1.84 (25)


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